Tagged With application launchers

Facebook is not making its own phone, or a version of Android, because Facebook thinks Android works just fine. Its Facebook Home suite of apps, announced today, replaces the lock and home screens that normally hold your Android apps with updates, pictures and messaging, all delivered through Facebook.

Last month, Mac application launcher Alfred updated with a lot of improvements. The most interesting feature is the new Workflows system that makes it easy for you to create your own speed-boosting shortcuts.

Android: Sidebar is an application switcher that lives on the side of your screen, ready to launch your favourite apps or switch between ones already open with a single swipe. It's fast, flexible, and it lets you customise the apps in the drawer so it's not cluttered with shortcuts you don't need.

Android: Jumping between apps in Android usually requires you to either go back to your home screen or swipe sideways between open apps. Swapps! is a new utility that lets you pull up a list of open and recently used apps on the side of the screen at any time.

If you have an old Kindle sitting around, you can get more use out of it by jailbreaking it. KUAL is a worthwhile little application launcher for jailbroken Kindles that gives you easy access to your downloads.

Android (4.0+): HomeFlip won't replace your default app launcher, but it comes in handy when switching between apps. Tap the home button once to bring up a custom list of your favourite apps overlaid on top of the one you're using. Tap home again to go to your default launcher.

Android: Nova Launcher, one of our favourite custom launchers for Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean, just updated to include even more customisation options for your home screen, as well as some nice performance improvements.

Do you still launch applications by pressing the Windows key and searching for your app? Or perhaps you use the Start menu. App launchers are faster and more powerful than any built-in search system, and they can do a lot more than just launch apps and search for documents. Here's why you should be using one and everything you can do with it.

Mac: When you're in the middle of a research project and bouncing all types of text between different applications, it's tough to speed up the process. Liquid Information is a launcher-style app that speeds up transferring text between apps, searching and translating.

Windows: Pipy is an application launcher that combines the best of apps like Launchy with command-line features from Unix-based systems. It comes with useful file search functions that your computer might be missing.

Whether you're tired of your stock home screen or just want to try something new, there's bound to be an Android launcher that's just right for you. This week we're going to check out our top five Android launchers for customisation, speed, design and features.

Mac OS X: I've always liked the idea of hot corners, but they don't come with a lot of different options — plus I end up accidentally setting them off all the time. CornerClick changes your hot corners to activate with a click or a long hover, so you won't accidentally activate them, while also adding tons of other actions you can perform.

iOS (Jailbroken): Since the iPhone homescreen is essentially an app launcher on its own you might not think it needed much in the way of quick access. Deck is a simple but well-made side bar launch tool that adds easy access to a number of customisable apps and settings.

After prolonged use of Executor, our original pick for best application launcher, we found one very glaring oversight: it still doesn't work properly on 64-bit machines, since it can only launch 32-bit applications. With 64-bit now increasingly common, that makes it less helpful, so we've updated our choice. The new champion? Feature-filled yet easy-to-use Launchy.

Windows: There are apps that give you a dock in Windows to quickly launch applications, but Multibar does that and more. In addition to quick access to commonly used apps, the tool gives you quick access to recently modified files, smart folders based on what you've used recently, news, web search, local weather and other widgets.

Mac: Quicksilver is our favourite kauncher for the Mac, but it's always been a little less than stellar when running on Lion. Now the team behind the open-source application launcher have optimised the app for OS X Lion, added official support for Apple's latest OS, introduced auto-updating plugins, and more.

One of the best things about Android is being able to customise everything about your home screen, which you do with a third-party application launcher. Android has more than one great launcher, but our favourite is LauncherPro, which finds the perfect balance between incredible performance and high customisability.